Shadow of Nostalgia
by Motherflipping Oak
Summary: The Pokemon Tower and its never-shifting fogs are home to countless eerie creatures and rumours. To Jen, it sounded like the perfect trial of guts. However, she couldn't have predicted a chance meeting with a fellow trainer whose starter has gone missing in the tower, nor getting wrapped up in the curious case of Cleyra the cubone.


_**Shadow of Nostalgia**_

* * *

It had been hours, and the Pokémon Tower still hadn't run out of stairs.

Jen sighed and procured a bottle of fresh water from her backpack, taking a swig out of it as she glared into the foggy corridors in front of her. The Pokémon Tower sure wasn't going to let itself be conquered without a fight. The tower hadn't looked nearly as big from the outside, and she most certainly hadn't been expecting the hurdles she had already faced. Who knew how many ghosts and possessed channelers were still lurking ahead of her?

She smiled and put the water bottle away. One way or another, this was going to be interesting.

Most people believed climbing to the top of the tower was a waste of time. And they were probably right. But once Jen had made up her mind, there was no stopping her.

Maybe there wasn't anything worthwhile at the top of the tower. Who knew? At the very least she'd be able to tell people a funny story about how she spent the entire afternoon climbing up the Pokémon Tower only to find nothing whatsoever at the top.

If she was perfectly honest with herself, however, there was another reason. She had also wanted to see if she had the guts to do it. She wasn't particularly afraid of ghosts, but dark buildings and eerie silences always made her stomach tingle and her nerves jittery. It had been fine when she had been a kid, but now that she was a real trainer she couldn't let herself be intimidated by nothing. So, a trial of guts it was, one that would hopefully prove she had overcome her nerves and could continue on her journey without a care in the world.

She quickly checked up on her pokémon. Everyone was fine and ready for another battle.

Before she could continue her journey towards the top, however, she heard a muffled sound not far into the distance. She frowned and pricked her ears up. The sound came from somewhere in the fog, and now that she focused on it, she recognised it as crying.

Jen hesitated. It could be a trap: a ghost luring her into an ambush or setting up a prank. But there was also a possibility it was some trainer or a little kid who had gotten lost in a fog. Either way, she decided it was better to take the risk.

She carefully followed the sobs into the fog, hugging the wall as often as she could. The sobs grew louder, and finally she saw the dim outline of a curled up figure on the floor, its face hidden by its knees.

"Hey!" Jen took a step closer. "Are you okay?"

The figure twitched, and moved to reveal a tear-streaked face of a young girl.

"Who's there?" she asked, her voice surprisingly deep and thick with emotion.

"Just another trainer. You're one too, right?" Jen had never been good at gauging other people's ages, but she was relatively sure the girl in front of her was at least as old as she was, probably older.

The girl nodded.

"I'm Jen," Jen said, hoping for a stronger reaction.

The girl looked away. "My name is Memory."

"Memory?" Jen frowned. Who named their daughter 'Memory'? She felt sorry for the poor kid. "Okay, nice to meet you. So, what's wrong? Did you hurt yourself or something?"

"No," Memory said haltingly, still refusing to look at her. "I'm fine."

"People don't usually cry when they're fine," Jen said impatiently. She wanted to keep going, but at the same time, she didn't want to leave this girl alone if she was in some distress. Her mother would never let her hear the end of it if she found out. She had a weird way of knowing when Jen had done something wrong no matter how well she thought she had hidden the evidence.

"I...I lost all my pokémon. And then I got lost and..."

Jen frowned. "You lost your pokémon?" That was serious, alright.

"I only had Cleyra with me, and her ball broke. And now she's gone off somewhere and I can't catch her!"

Jen scratched the side of her head. "What, doesn't it come to you when you call for it?"

"No, and I'm all out of poké balls, too."

"Huh." Jen considered this. If the girl had been merely lost, she would have offered to escort her back to the ground floor, but if she had lost an important pokémon of hers in the tower it wasn't likely she'd be able to persuade her to leave without it.

"Well," she finally said, "I've got some poké balls. Maybe I can help you catch it?"

Memory looked up at her, her eyes wide and mouth open.

"You'd help me?"

"Sure," Jen shrugged. "Mom always says you should help people in need."

Memory smiled. "Thank you!"

"It's nothing," Jen said, waving her hand. "So, where did you last see Cleyra?"

"I'm not sure." Memory stood up, and Jen was shocked to see she was at least a foot taller than she herself was: based on her behaviour, she had believed her to be a novice trainer like herself, but on closer inspection she was at least fourteen, probably older. "I think I saw her go that way, however." She pointed into the distance.

Jen nodded. "Okay, let's go look for her."

Memory nodded back and followed Jen into the mist. It wasn't long until she gasped: "There!"

Jen frowned and squinted her eyes. Before she could see anything, she heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet. She turned her head and saw it: a small brown creature, its head covered by a milky-white skull, lugging a large bone behind it.

"Isn't that-" Jen pulled her PokéDex out of the pocket of her jeans and aimed it towards the creature.

The Dex sprung to life and stated in a monotonous voice: "Cubone, A ground-type pokémon. Because it never removes its skull helmet, no one has ever seen this pokémon's real face."

"So it is," Jen said, impressed. "I've never seen one in the wild. Well," she added, looking around her, "if this place counts as the wild, anyway."

But Memory wasn't listening to her. She had lunged forward, her arms extended, dashing straight towards the cubone.

"Cleyra," she yelled, desperation in her voice, "please come back to me! I promise I'll do anything to make up for whatever I did!"

The cubone stared at Memory for a split second. Then, it turned tail and fled down the corridor.

Jen stared at Memory, who was running forward towards where the cubone had vanished. "I don't think you're going catch her that way."

Memory shook her head. "I know, I need a poké ball. Cleyra!" And with that, she rushed into the mist.

Jen sighed, then adjusted her backpack and went after her. Reckless or not, she couldn't let Memory go in there alone: she had no pokémon to defend herself with if one of the many ghosts haunting the tower decided to target her. Still, she didn't understand why Memory was being foolish. Surely she must have known running towards an estranged pokémon and flailing your arms around wasn't going to work.

She followed after the sound of Memory's footsteps, keeping her gaze low to make sure she could see the floor at all times. The footsteps grew louder, then suddenly vanished completely.

"Memory!"

"Over here!"

Jen rushed over and found Memory standing in front of a corner, her arms spread to her sides. And in front of her was the cubone, pressing itself against the corner, its head swivelling from left to right as if looking for an escape.

Jen paused. Had it just been dumb luck, or had Memory planned to corner the creature all along? Perhaps she should alter her previous assessment of Memory being foolish.

"She's still not listening to me," she muttered as Jen walked to her. "Why won't she listen to me?"

Jen shrugged. "So, want those poké balls now?"

"Please."

Jen opened her backpack and handed over the five empty ones she could find. "Want me to soften her up for you?"

"NO!" Memory yelled so loudly it made Jen's ears ring. The cubone too cringed and began turning around more desperately. "I-I mean," she said much more quietly, "I don't want to hurt her."

Jen scratched her head again. "Okay then." She really couldn't figure out what was going on in this girl's mind. Perhaps she had been wrong earlier and Memory wasn't a trainer, and Cleyra was simply a pet of hers. But then, what was she doing so high up in the Pokémon Tower? How could she even have gotten here without battling? "You know that it's going to be really difficult to get her to stay in a ball when they're at their full strength, right?"

"I am aware of that, yes," she said with a touch of impatience in her voice.

Jen shrugged. "Fine." She could always buy more poké balls. Still, she hoped Memory would get lucky and cut her economical losses to a minimum.

"Okay, here goes." Memory focused with her tongue in the middle of her mouth and lobbed the first ball at the cubone.

The cubone vanished inside the orb in a brief flash of light, and immediately broke free. It gave Memory a dirty look.

Jen rolled her eyes. "See, I only have so many poké balls on me, and if you can't catch them with them-"

"I know, I know!" Memory said hastily and threw another poké ball.

The second time, the poké ball shook twice before the pokémon break through. The next time, it only shook once.

"Please..." Memory whispered, barely audible to Jen as she threw the second-to-last ball, and then let out a cry of dismay when the cubone immediately freed itself again. Jen hid her face behind her hand.

"Okay, look," she said as Memory looked at her feet, holding back tears, "I suppose I can always escort you back outside and you can collect your other pokémon and come back for Cleyra on your own."

Memory shook her head. "I will not- I cannot leave Cleyra alone again." She closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath. Then, just as Jen was about to suggest Memory wait and keep watch as she ran out to fetch more poké balls, she hurled the ball forward with both hands.

The cubone vanished inside a ball once more, and struggled once,

twice,

thrice,

Jen tore her gaze from the ball to look at Memory's face. The older girl's face was contorted with dread and hope, intertwined so closely she couldn't tell which was more prominent.

Then,

a click.

They both stared at the ball in disbelief for a several moments. Then, Memory's face broke into a joyous smile and she whooped in joy.

"Oh, Cleyra!" She rushed over to where the poké ball was lying and fell down on her knees, clutching the ball tightly against her cheek. "I've missed you so much!"

"Congratulations," said Jen, also smiling.

Memory opened her eyes and beamed at Jen. "I couldn't have done it without you. How can I repay you?"

Jen waved her hand. "Nah, it's cool. I only did what anyone would have done." Sure, her wallet might have taken a hit, but the look on Memory's face and the good feeling that came from helping someone made it worth it.

Memory hesitated and looked at the poké ball again. "I'm not so sure. Until you, no-one as much as spoke to me."

Jen raised her eyebrows. "Really? How long have you been waiting here?"

"I don't know," Memory clutched the poké ball holding her precious Cleyra against her chest. "I've lost the sense of time inside here. But now," and at this, she smiled again, "now I can finally go. Thank you."

"Shucks, it was nothing, really." Jen looked away, flustered by the overt praises. "I'm just glad-"

She paused when she heard the sound of a poké ball hitting the ground and looked back at Memory. She was gone. The poké ball lay on the ground, rolling slowly in place.

"Memory?" She asked, looking around. She felt a strange lurch in her stomach. Where could she have gone in the few seconds she had looked away, without making a single sound? It didn't seem possible.

"Memory!" She yelled louder when she received no reply. Still nothing.

Now nervous, she walked over to the poké ball and picked it up. Nothing about it seemed unusual. Why on earth would Memory have abandoned the cubone after making such an effort to recapture it in the first place?

She wandered around the floor for the better part of an hour, calling Memory's name, battling the mischievous ghosts that wandered into her path. Nothing. Out of clues, she scanned Cleyra's poké ball with her PokéDex.

It was a perfectly fine cubone. Healthy, with a jolly nature. Only two things were off.

First, it had no nickname.

Secondly, Jen recognised the TrainerID number. It was her own.

It was a long time until she stopped staring into the distance.

* * *

In the end, she never did climb to the top of the Pokémon Tower. Instead, she wandered around Lavender Town, asking the residents if they had seen a girl in a purple dress. No-one gave her a straight answer, but when she finally decided to retell her experience to a kindly old woman sitting outside her house, she received a possible explanation, one she had already secretly considered: she told her of dead souls lingering on, desperately clinging to this world in order to fulfill goals they hadn't managed to reach during their lifetime, unable to move on without assistance.

Jen felt dizzy as she walked back towards the Pokémon Centre. There really was no other explanation she could think of to what happened, but it felt so unreal. How long had Memory been there? Who had she been? Was this cubone even her Cleyra?

Jen hesitated and looked at the poké ball in her hand. Would it even be okay to use the cubone? It had her ID on it, sure, but at the same time it was Memory's cubone. Maybe.

At the same time, stashing the cubone away or giving it away felt just as wrong. Maybe she should just release it and take it back to the tower?

But Memory...Memory had lingered on just for a chance to capture this cubone. Would it be right to squander all that time and effort and Memory's pain?

Jen swallowed, then summoned the cubone. It looked at Jen quietly, waiting for her command.

"Cleyra," she said tentatively. The cubone blinked.

Jen's throat felt dry. She couldn't abandon this cubone. No way, no how.

"Cleyra," she repeated. "Would you like to be my companion?"

Cleyra simply looked at her. Jen crouched down and extended her hand towards it.

"Come here."

Cleyra pattered towards her and allowed Jen to stroke the sleek skull covering its head.

"Right." She didn't quite know why, but her eyes were misty. "We'll go together, then, Cleyra. Let's make memories together."

_**THE END**_


End file.
